World economy threatened by oil, food prices

DPA Osaka (Japan), June 14 (DPA) Rising oil and commodity prices are posing a threat to the global economy, the finance ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) said Saturday. “Elevated commodity prices, especially of oil and food, pose a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide, have serious implications for the most vulnerable, and may increase global inflationary pressure,” the G8 finance minsters said in their final communique.

At the meeting in Osaka, which concluded Saturday, the G8 finance ministers urged oil producers to increase production and increase transparency in the oil market in order to slow down skyrocketing crude prices.

According to the New York Times newspaper, key OPEC member Saudi Arabia said it planned to hike production by 500,000 barrels per day as crude prices peaked just below $140 per barrel.

The oil markets could be made “more efficient by promoting greater transparency and reliability in market data, including on oil stocks,” and on the size of financial flows coming into the oil markets, the ministers said.

The G8 consists of the world’s seven richest nations - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy - as well as Russia. DPA